MUMBAI: The government's 'India Shining' advertising juggernaut may have just hit a roadblock. Opponents of the campaign on Wednesday filed two separate two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in the Delhi High Court seeking a ban on it and a direction to the Centre to submit a "full and proper" statement of accounts on the funds spent on it.

The two PILs, filed by Unemployed Youth Unity Movement (what's that pray?) and advocate Chanchal Thakur, alleged that the campaign was being "used" by the ruling party to project its image ahead of elections, PTI has reported.

A division bench of Justice BC Patel and Justice BD Ahmed has asked the Election Commission (EC) to place the relevant material before it and posted the matter for hearing on 3 March.

The move came even as the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lambasted the EC for recent adverse comments it made on the campaign and accused it of "acting to please somebody."

The BJP's state general secretary H Raja was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying, "The Election Commission has no business to talk about this matter as there is no violation of code. Let them take action if they can."

Claiming that the India Shining advertisements were not being used as a prelude to election campaign, Raja said the ads will be stopped once the code of conduct comes into force.